TELEPHONE LINE JACK CONNECTOR

Abstract: A line jack connector (20) comprises a box (21) containing telephony components. Two cover plates (22, 23) cover the front face of the box (21). The main cover (22) remains in place so as to cover and protect the telephony components, whereas the access cover (23) may be removed so as to fit a telephone extension line. Resilient contacts are used to effect a good connection between the circuit board on the access cover (23) and contacts (27) on the main circuit board in the box (21). The box (21) may also house cable TV components. Electrical surge protection may be provided in a separate unit.

Description: TELEPHONE LINE JACK CONNECTOR This invention relates to a line jack connector. The current method of fitting extensions to domestic telephone systems is by using break in adaptors on a flying lead or by using the British Telecom NTE5. The present invention seeks to provide a simple disconnection facility for a telephone socket which can easily be used by a consumer to add extensions to the telephone system. According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a line jack connector comprising telephony circuitry and further circuitry physically separable from the telephony circuitry and releasably electrically connectable to the telephony circuitry by at least one resilient contact, wherein the resilient contact is connected to one of the telephony circuitry or further circuitry and a further contact engageable with the resilient contact is connected to the other of the telephony circuitry or further circuitry. The line jack connector preferably comprises a multi part housing which may be made from an insulator material such as plastics. The housing may comprise a main body which may be secured in position on a wall or the like and one or more cover parts which would usually be located at the front of the housing. Holes are often provided in such housings to facilitate the input of cables. The number of holes in the housing is preferably minimised to protect against moisture and condensation ingress into the unit. Feet are preferably provided to the rear of the housing in order to separate the housing from the body on which it is mounted. This allows any condensation to run down the mounting body, such as a wall and pass behind the unit rather than collect on the top. Space may be provided in the housing for coiling extra cable to allow for re-termination should it become necessary. One or more anti-tamper devices such as labels can easily be fitted to the removable cover parts to reveal tampering by the customer with the main components of the unit. The resilient contact preferably comprises a leaf spring. This resilient contact is preferably located on the main body of the housing or on one of the cover parts and the said further contact is located on the other of said main body of the housing or the cover. Preferably the resilient contact is provided on a cover part. This contact arrangement disconnects the customer premises telephony on removal of the appropriate access cover. The resilient contacts preferably have two staggered tails for improved stability during product assembly. Some and preferably all of the contacts have two contact points with the circuitry giving improved reliability. In other words the two joints must be defective for complete failure of each contact. The non resilient contacts may comprise contact plates. The invention has particular application as part of a telephone signal receiver. The invention allows customers to fit their own telephone extensions to the circuitry located below the removable access cover. Only a minimum number of components are accessible via the access cover for durability and simplicity. Any telephony components would usually, although not essentially be located on a printed circuit board. The telephony components would be lifted off the printed circuit board to prevent moisture collection between them and the board. The unit could be manufactured for use with three or four wires or up to six wire systems. Provision any be made in the housing for more than one telephone line. This receiver may be located in a housing comprising receivers for further signal inputs. According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a line jack connector comprising a housing containing a telephone signal receiver and a receiver for at least one other signal. The said other signal may be any frequency modulated signal which may for example be received via co-axial cable. The invention has particular application in the receiving of signals for cable television. The cable television components can be accessed for attention or repair without interruption of the telephone system. The cable television components may be clipped or screwed into the mouldings of the products. The products are designed to meet the minimum bend radius allowable for cable television co-axial cable. It is common to provide electrical protection for the telephony printed circuit board. The protection may be provided in the housing or in an external box. According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a telephone signal receiver comprising a line jack connector, wherein an electrical surge protection device is provided for circuitry located in the connector and wherein the said protection device is located in a separate unit which is separate from and located any distance away from the line jack connector. The separate enclosure can be located outdoors. A test point would be fitted so that engineers can test a circuit without requiring access to premises. The protection device may typically be incorporated in either a Reliance RLS-1 (trade mark) block or on a PCB assembly mounted with a Krone 244 (trade mark) terminal block. The fitting of the 244 block allows for bi-directional testing. The enclosure may be operative to mount various types of television splitter blocks. In order that the present invention may be more readily understood specific embodiments thereof will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:- Fig. 1 is a side elevation of one resilient contact for a line jack connector in accordance with the present invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the resilient contact of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a front view of a line jack connector in accordance with the invention having both covers removed; Fig. 4 is a front view of the line jack connector of Fig. 3 with one cover in place; Fig. 5 is a front view of the line jack connector of Figs. 3 and 4 with both covers in place; Fig. 6 is an exploded cross section of the line jack connector of Figs. 3 to 5; -1- Fig. 7 is a front view of a second line jack connector in accordance with the invention having both covers removed; Fig. 8 is a front view of the second line jack connector of Fig. 7 with additional components located therein; Fig. 9 shows the line jack connector of Figs. 7 and 8 with one cover in place; Fig. 10 shows the line jack connector of Figs. 7 to 9 with both covers in place; Fig. 11 is an exploded cross section of the line jack connector of Figs. 7 to 10; Fig. 12 is a front elevation of a protection device housing in accordance with the invention; and Fig. 13 is a cross section through the protection device housing of Fig. 12. Referring to Figs. 1 and 2 a resilient contact 10 for use in a line jack connector in accordance with the invention comprises an elongate metal strip which is bent into a "V" shape 11 with flanges 12,13 extending from the free ends thereof. One of these flanges 12 divides into two staggered solder tails 14,15 so as to provide improved stability of the contact 10 during assembly of the connector. The use of two staggered solder tails 14,15 also results in improved product reliability as both of these solder joints would need to be defective for complete failure of the contact. These bent metal strips act as a leaf spring and therefore provides resilient electrical contacts. The contacts may be used in the products described in Figs. 3 to 11. Referring to Figs. 3 to 6 a line jack connector 20 comprises a three part plastics housing, the three parts of the housing including an open fronted wall mountable box 21 and two cover plates 22,23 for the front of the box. The box 21 comprises an integrally moulded support 24 for a support plate 25 for a printed circuit board 26. The usual circuitry of a domestic telephone connection is mounted on the printed circuit board 26. Three elongate metal contacts 27 are additionally provided in parallel at one end of the printed circuit board 26. Each contact 27 is connected to the printed circuit board 26 at two separate points so as to minimise the chance of complete contact failure. The main cover plate 22 is secured to the front of the box 21 by fixing screws (not illustrated) . The main cover plate 22 prevents access to all of the circuitry apart from the three elongate contacts 27. A sliding door 28 is provided in the front face of the main cover 22 so as to facilitate access to the telephone socket 29 connected to the printed circuit board. The access cover 23 may now be secured to the box 21 by fixing screws (not illustrated) . A printed circuit board 30 is provided on the inside of the access cover. This printed circuit board comprises three connection points 31 for telephone extension lines and three resilient contacts, are connected via the board to each connection point. The resilient contacts are illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 and have been described previously. When the access cover 23 is secured to the box each resilient contact resiliently engages one of the elongate contacts on the main circuit board. In use if a telephone extension is to be fitted to the connector the access plate 23 is removed thus disconnecting the resilient contacts. The wires from the extension cable (usually 3, but possibly up to 6) are then located in position 31 and the access cover 23 is then refitted to the main housing box 21. The resilient contacts will automatically reconnect the system when the access cover 23 is resecured to the main box 21 . Thus the connector provides a simple and reliable way of adding extensions to domestic telephone systems. The majority of the circuit components are contained in the main body of the unit and therefore are not accessible when the access cover 23 is removed. Referring to Figs. 7 to 11 a further line jack connector 40 in accordance with the invention is similar to that previously described except in that the box 41 is larger so as to accommodate a mounting 42 for cable television components. The cables for the cable television are fed through two apertures (not illustrated) provided at the base of the box. The cable television components are covered by the main cover 43 and are not accessible when only the access cover 44 is removed. The box is also adapted to store a further telephone line printed circuit board and its components 45 below the first telephone line printed circuit board and components 46. It is conventional to provide electrical surge protection for the telephoning circuitry. A surge protector 31 is provided in the circuitry shown in Fig. 8, but not in the circuitry shown in Fig.3. Here the protection has been included in a further box located externally of the customer premises. This box is illustrated in Figs. 12 and 13. The externally located box 50 comprises a base plate 51 and a cover piece 52 therefor. Cable from the unprotected line jack connector is fed into the external box 50 and is held in place by a cable anchor 52. The cable is fed to a surge protector 53 such as an RL51-2 Block. It is to be understood that the above described embodiments by way of illustration only. Many modifications and variations are possible.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. A line jack connector comprising telephoning circuitry and further circuitry physically separable from the telephony circuitry and releasably electrically connectable to the telephony circuitry by at least one resilient contact, wherein the resilient contact is connected to one of the telephony circuitry and a further contact engageable with the resilient contact is connected to the other of the telephony circuitry or further circuitry. 2. A line jack connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the resilient contact comprises a leaf spring. 3. A line jack connector as claimed in claim 1 or, claim 2, wherein the resilient contact has at least two contact points with the circuitry to which it is connected. 4. A line jack connector as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the line jack connector comprises a multi part housing including a main body and one or more cover parts. 5. A line jack connector as claimed in claim 4, wherein one of said resilient contacts is secured to one of said cover parts. 6. A line jack connector as claimed in claim 4, wherein removal of one of the cover parts will not expose electrical circuitry other than contacts for the resilient contact. 7. A line jack connector as claimed in any preceding claim comprising an anti-tamper device. 8. A line jack connector as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the further circuitry comprises connections for at least one telephone extension point. 9. A line jack connector as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the main box comprises circuitry for more than one telephone line. 10. A line jack connector as claimed in any preceding claim comprising receiving apparatus for further signal inputs. 11. A line jack connector as claimed in claim 10, wherein the further input is a frequency modulated signal. 12. A line jack connector as claimed in claim 10 or claim 11, wherein the further signal comprises a cable television transmission. 13. A line jack connector comprising a housing containing a telephone signal receiver and a receiver for at least one other signal. 14. A line jack connector as claimed in claim 13, wherein the further input is a frequency modulated signal. 15. A line jack connector as claimed in claim 13 or claim 14, wherein the further signal comprises a cable television transmission. 16. A line jack connector as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein an electrical surge protection is provided. 17. A line jack connector as claimed in claim 16, wherein the electrical surge protector is provided in a unit separate from and located a distance away from the line jack connector. 18. A telephone signal receiver comprising a line jack connector, wherein an electrical surge protection device is provided for circuitry located in the connector and wherein the said protection device is located in a separate unit which is separate from and located a distance away from the line jack connector. 19. A telephone signal device as claimed in claim 18, wherein the electrical surge protection device is operable to be mounted outdoors.

Inventors: HEBENSTREIT MARTIN, HEBENSTREIT, MARTIN
Applicants: AUSTIN TAYLOR COMMUNICAT LTD, HEBENSTREIT MARTIN, AUSTIN TAYLOR COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED, HEBENSTREIT, MARTIN
Application year: 1994
Main classification: H04M1
IPC codes: H04M1